Today a number of techniques exist for facilitating more spontaneous communication between users of mobile devices (user equipments) like cellular telephones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's), smart-phones, laptops etc. who are within each other's immediate physical proximity.
Such techniques typically include an application for allowing users to create profiles for themselves and the people they would like to meet. A user is then connected to proximate mobile users who fit their desired profile, and once a user with like interests is identified further mobile communication is facilitated.
One viable product on the market is SmallPlanet's CrowdSurfer which is a location-based, mobile social software using Bluetooth technology/IEEE 802.15 standard for the communication between the mobile devices. This solution enables people with the same profile and common friends to meet each other, as each time a potential new contact is within 10 meters, users get a Bluetooth radio signal and relationship information is available via GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) connections to a web site.
Another example is the product Nokia Sensor which enables users to send free messages via Bluetooth to other Nokia Sensor users within the rage of the Bluetooth communication means. In this solution the application software allows users to create a kind of mobile home page, which can include a photo and personal info, and when the user selects a scan command in the application, the user will be able to access mobile home pages within the range of the Bluetooth communication means. After this the user can then decide whom to chat with.
US-2007/0037574-A1 discloses a method and apparatus for a location-based network service and notification system in which registered users are notified of mutual social interest. Here, users subscribed in a community may register in a network location; either by selecting from a stored catalog of locations a fixed network that corresponds to their physical location, or by the spontaneous creation of an ad-hoc network based upon users who are all in the same location. After this the presence of all other users registered in the network location is presented to the user, and the user is allowed to select other of the registered users. Once such selection is accomplished, the user is notified if the selection is mutual.
Further background art is reflected by WO 2004/043026 A2,EP 1942455 A1, US 2006/0025169 A1, WO 03/090143 A2, WO 2008/132241 A2 and US 2005/0181763 A1.
A common purpose of the techniques described above is to facilitate communication between mobile users who do not know each other but share common interests. Such interests may include professional occupation and expertise information, place of living, schools and organizations previously attended to, hobbies, dating preferences, interest in a certain product or activity etc.
However, since Bluetooth technology is used for identifying whether a mobile terminal is within reach of another terminal, existing solutions are greatly limited to a close physical proximity which corresponds to the range of the Bluetooth interface (approximately 10 meters).
Moreover, existing solutions are early examples of a of technology that are designed to create interaction between users, but whenever a user employ the technology there is rarely another user out there to interact with. This in turn means that existing users often give up trying to find some other user which after some time results in the use of the technology slowly diminishing and finally dying out. The limited range also means that it is rather unlikely that a user finds another user to interact with.
Another problem related to the issue of too few users is the fact that people with similar profiles will not meet if they do not use the same software application, since different applications are not compatible.